HW: Hawkestra 21.10.2000 (tacklist update)

[Jon Jarrett]

On Mon, 23 Oct 2000, Alasdair Macdonald wrote:

> Quick intro of folks on stage
> Hassan I Sahba
> Assault & Battery>Golden Void
> electronic interlude>

        They were doing this vaguely techno outro to `Golden Void' last
tour too, I thought it was the same piece but shorter.

> Night Of The Hawks

        Now I'm damn sure I'd have noticed that had it been there...

> Utopia>instrumental> (I thought I caught some of those Paranoia -
> winding-down hints here)

        `Utopia' got itself some new words courtesy of Ron, and quite
frankly I thought thy were lousy. He has nothing to say about genetic
modification, so I wish he'd stop using the words because they're in the
papers too much now to sound cool.

> Arrival In Utopia
> electronic interlude

        That interlude was `Voyager', from Harvey's _Interstellar Chaos_
album.

> Free Fall (Harvey)
> Ron tree poem (ends with line "The brother of my enemy")

        That was indeed as you suggest `Wage War'; damn good too. `Free
Fall' also had that long poem at the end that he's been adding since 1997,
which I've always thought of as `Tree Fall', though I don't know its real
title if it has one. One of Ron's better moments this doublet I thought.

> Shot Down In The Night
> Rocky Paths>
> Moonglum
> Warriors At The Edge Of Time
> Angels Of Death
> Dave solo spot

        As someone else has said, lots of that sounded like `First Landing
on Medusa' to me though I only know the written text so I don't know if
the backing was new or not.It would have been cool had the words been
fully audible.

> Spirit Of The Age
> PSI Power
> Motorway City
> Hurry On Sundown
> Lighthouse (Blake solo)
> Can't Do This, Can't Do That (=Right To Decide?)

        Yes, `Right to Decide'.

> Sputnik Stan
> Earth Calling>
> Shouldn't Do That>
> Psychedelic Warlords
> electronic interlude
> 10 Seconds Of Forever
> Space Is Deep
> electronic interlude
> Brainstorm
> Sonic Attack
> Master Of The Universe
> -- looks like this might have been planned as an encore break, but
> no-one left the stage --
> Turner rap
> Born To Go>
> Orgone Accumulator
> Silver Machine
> Nik Turner - band introductions
> Ejection (seemed possibly unplanned?)

        I think it was planned, and Dave just let rip early because he was
fed up with Nik's banter. But that was just my impression.

> Turner rap
>
> And then as the PA carried on playing Massive Attack (from
> Mezzanine I think) Nik and Huw remained to noodle some Pink
> Panther stuff for 5 minutes or so.
>
> (My guess is that Wage War is the poem by Ron?)
>
> I don't know if it was mentioned by anyone else, but I never saw
> Ron playing bass and I thought that worked very well - bringing
> Alan back to the core.

        I wasn't very impressed with Ron, but then he must have been under
heavyweight instruction to try and sound like Calvert on _Space Ritual_ as
much as he could. Ron's better when he has a stage to front; the Love in
Space tour gig I saw he did this very well, finishing off with a poem done
reclined on the floor in front of the mikes; very close and present. I
think there's no doubt that when he's on form and has a stage to himself
he can manage a crowd as well as anyone except Bob; but he has to have
that space for his ego which is a pity.

        I think he's a perfectly decent bass player too, and beats Harvey
by a long way; for a start he improvises and gets away with it... But
there was no room for another bass player with Alan around. As always I
wonder how much longer Ron'll be in the band. There ins't much room in it
for him even if he did write the last new song.

> And I think everyone was on stage for Silver Machine.

        I thought so too, but later I couldn't see five drum kits so I
wonder if all the drummer were. The rhythm section was physical enough
already I thought :-)

> Tim Blakes set:
> introduction
> Instrumental
> "quiet tune"
> piano tune
> Time Of The Century

        That'll be `Tide of the Century'

> Crystal Island

        I thought this was `Easter Island' but I'm probably wrong.

> New Jerusalem

> Don't have Bedouin's set as I don't know any of the tunes (not to
> my taste either, and painfully loud, even in the balcony)

        Well, they did a lot of stuff I didn't know, presumably fresh off
the new album, but what I did know that they did was: `Vision Quest'
(first song), `One Moon Circles' (I wasn't expecting that at all -
excellent), `Demons in Denial', `Elric the Enchanter Pt 2' and
`Wings'. Nothing off _Captured Rotation_ and only the one off
_Bedouin_. But the new stuff (which was presumably written with the new
guitarist rather than solo or with Sean Massett) was very noticeably
different I thought. That guy plays NWOBHM-style guitar and it was
great. I thought, anyway. I look forward with drooling avarice to _As
Above So Below_.

> And I didn't even think Simon got to play. Security moving people
> out of the balcony around 5am, I thought Bedouin were closing the
> evening at 5:15am. I would have liked to see Simon's set but I still
> got my value for money.

        It wasn't so hot, I thought. He played some very nice violin, but
the backing was all taped, and quite nasty doof-doof-doof versions of the
songs as well. The set was, as I remember: `Spiral Galaxy 29848' (most of
which Simon spent tuning up because his violin was acting up and which
therefore only got full volume at the three quarter point), `Hall of the
Mountain Grill' (very very slow - painfully so), `City of Lagoons',
`Damnation Alley' (only from the break onwards), and something I didn't
know but which sounded much more suited to that style of playing which I
therefore assumed was a solo piece, either from _Yassassim_ or the
supposed new album. Anyone?

> The power thing in Psychedelic Warlords was that everything bar
> the drums and vocals dropped out of the PA. Turner was the first to
> come back in, then some keys, then everyone else. I didn't think it
> was planned, despite which it worked well.

        I thought it was deliberate, but that the stop wasn't clean -
someone forgot they were supposed to go quiet, maybe? It was very good,
and then the (if you'll forgive the phrase) double bass - well...
>
> Oh, and the total time was approx 3hours 40 mins, add 5 mins for
> Nik's noodling at the end.

        Did I miss `Night of the Hawks' - really? I'd have rather enjoyed
that. Yours,
             Jon